


The Box

by celticheart72



Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Angst, Complete, Emotional Manipulation, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, F/M, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Domestic Violence, Intimidation, Name-Calling, Nudity, Past Abuse, Past Suicidal Thoughts, Referenced Torture, Referenced castration, Threats of Violence, Victor being protective, rude comments
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-06
Updated: 2019-06-06
Packaged: 2020-04-11 22:33:17
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19119037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/celticheart72/pseuds/celticheart72
Summary: Alexandra's drunken ex comes into the club where she works and tries to stir up trouble. Victor takes care of him.





	The Box

**Author's Note:**

> WARNINGS in the tags. There are mentions of violent and cruel acts but nothing is written in any detail.

I wipe down the bar as I look around at the bustling club. As much as I can’t stand Butch, I do have to admit, since Victor ‘reprogrammed’ him to help Oswald, business has certainly picked up. 

Speaking of Victor, I wonder where my favorite hitman is. He usually comes in sometime during the evening to intimidate Butch, check on Oswald and the club for Don Falcone, and give me a kiss. 

"Alexandra!"

My ears prick at the sound of my full name. No one except Kenneth, my ex, has ever called me by my full name. Everyone else knows me as Alex, except Victor who calls me Allie if he uses my name at all. So it can't be referencing me. Besides, this place isn’t my ex’s style. 

I start doing inventory behind the bar and realize I need to restock some of the bottles of liquor from the back. As I’m headed toward the bar flap I hear my name again. Louder this time.

"Alexandra!"

Now my hackles go up, that’s definitely my ex's voice. He should be down south where I left him, not here in Gotham. And if he is here, I can’t imagine he would dare come to a mob-run club.

Would he?

Butch smiles over at me from where he stands near the front of the bar. “Sounds like you have an admirer, sweetheart.”

“Shut up, Butch.”

His smile falls and he rolls his eyes before walking off.

My name is called again in close proximity behind me.

Turning around to face the man who terrorized me for longer than I care to admit I feel my heart pounding. I start shaking at the sight of him. He looks mostly the same, albeit a little heavier, which is to be expected from the alcohol abuse.

Kenneth bends down and gets within six inches of my face. Of course, I smell beer.

"Why are you ignoring me, Alexandra?" Kenneth slurs.

I just roll my eyes and shake my head. "I have nothing to say to you, Kenneth. You shouldn't have anything to say to me either."

His eyes are bloodshot and he's swaying on his feet. He must have started early. Maybe this is his new norm. I don't know, and I honestly don't care. I stopped caring the day I put a revolver in my mouth to end it all.

"I have plenty to say to you, Alexandra. You ruined my life. You're a slut. A liar and a slut." He sways some more and points in the vicinity of my face.

I take a step back, pressing my back into the bar counter. "You ruined your own life, Kenneth. I didn't do it for you. I just left before you could end mine."

He gets down in my face again. This time I smell the sweet alcohol tinge to his breath that always made me sick to my stomach. “I loved you. I treated you like a queen.”

“Really? You call an entire relationship filled with physical abuse, emotional intimidation, and mental torment love? If you  _ loved _ me at all you would have let me go. Instead, you threatened to find me and blow my brains out. Then you tried blackmailing me into having sex with you by telling me if I didn’t you would post nude photos you took without my knowledge all over the internet."

He stumbles back, unsteady on his feet and sneers. "I wish you had pulled that trigger and blown your brains out."

Suddenly I feel myself back there in that dark time of my life and swallow back the bile. My heart starts to pound and I feel hot and dizzy. I was barely a shell of a woman back then. He cowed me into submission by hurting me or threatening to kill anything or anyone close to me.  

When things got so bad that I was ready to put a bullet in my own head something snapped and I finally scraped together the courage to leave.

Kenneth reaches out to grab me but I knock his hand away. Victor has taught me a thing or two since I’ve been dating him. “Don’t touch me, Kenneth.”

"Don’t tell me what to do, bitch." He slurs and sways.

“Now  _ that _ just isn’t nice at all.” Victor’s tone is menacing.

First I wonder when he got here. Then, I pray this doesn’t end in bloodshed right here and now.

Kenneth tries to focus on Victor but fails and stumbles to the side. “What the fuck do you think you are? Her bodyguard?” 

“No.” Victor steps around me and looms over Kenneth who is half a foot shorter than the hitman in front of him. “Keeping people  _ alive _ isn’t really in my job description. Right, Allie?” He turns his smile back on me.

All I can do is swallow hard and shake my head. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Victor angry, and he’s definitely angry.

"She's a slut and a liar, I never hurt her," Kenneth is insistent now, and his hands ball into fists.

Victor takes a step forward which forces Kenneth back a step. “I don’t think I asked what you did or didn’t do.” 

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Oswald headed our way and I take a chance by putting a hand out across Victor’s chest. "Kenneth stop, just go. Please. We're done. We've been done for a long time. Both of us made mistakes..."

"Mistakes? You screwed me over you bitch! That wasn't a mistake. You found some new guys to move on to. Are you fucking all of them too like you did my friends?"

“Is there a problem here?” Oswald hisses as he hobbles up next to Victor while Kenneth continues his rant.

Victor side eyes Oswald and nods to one of his girls. “No problem. This one is just leaving.”

He leans down and grabs me by the back of the neck to pull me in for an open-mouthed tongue-filled kiss that leaves me dizzy when he lets me go. 

Then he grabs Kenneth under the arm and hauls him off with his counterpart.

I’m left standing there, mouth agape staring after Victor until Oswald moves in front of me looking highly annoyed.

“Do you think you could get back to work now?!”

“Yes, of course. I’m sorry Mr. Cobblepot.”

___

 

When I get home at close to 3 a.m. I head straight to my bathroom for a hot bath. My soaking tub and associated bath salts, bubble bath, candles, and neck pillow are the one luxury I’ve allowed myself in more years than I care to count. So when I lower myself into the lavender scented water I close my eyes and let the quiet wash over me.

Oswald’s lecture about visitors at work fades away. The things Kenneth said with their associated memories melt away. Butch’s smarmy joke about having an admirer recedes into the annals of my mind.

I’m not sure how long I lay in the water but when I finally rouse myself it’s warm at best. 

My eyes open and lift to the edge of the tub where Victor sits leaning back against the wall with one ankle over his knee. There’s a square box in his lap and he’s smiling slightly as he watches me stretch.

“That was an interesting little bread crumb trail you left me, princess.”

My eyes squint and I try to think what he’s referring to. I arch an eyebrow when it dawns on me. “You mean my clothes?”

His hairless eyebrows bounce as one side of his mouth quirks up.

“It’s not like you haven’t seen me naked hundreds of times Victor.”

“I’ll never not want to see you naked, princess.”

He has no idea how a simple statement like that makes me feel genuinely good about myself and us. 

I'm quiet while I chew my bottom lip and he watches me.

“I never slept with his friends.”

“I know.”

“He hurt me.”

“I know that too.”

I don’t see any deceit or questions in his brown eyes. 

“You do know I’ll always protect you?”

That makes me smile. “I know you will, Victor.”

His eyes are drawn to the tops of my breasts visible above the water line. While the bubbles are long gone the faint illumination in the room darkens the water so I’m still mostly hidden.  

Finally, his eyes lift and he holds the box out. “I have a present for you.”

I put one hand under the bottom and use the other to lift the lid. When I see what’s inside I immediately drop it and scream as I scramble out of the tub. 

Victor just purses his lips as he looks at the box floating in my bathwater.

“You don’t like your present?”

Looking between him and the box which is surprisingly buoyant, I scowl. “I’m not even sure what to say about it.”

Victor smirks as he stands and puts his gloved hands to my hips. “Forget about that. You're wet and naked. Let's think about other things." 

His lips move to the spot on my neck that drives me wild but I put a hand to his chest and push him back.

Pointing at the box in my tub I give him a meaningful look. “Take care of  _ that _ and then come to bed and I’ll take care of  _ you _ .”

I turn and walk out of the bathroom leaving Victor behind to deal with the bloody penis and testicles inside the box floating in my tub.

**Author's Note:**

> If you like my work kudos are appreciated. If you love it comments are wonderful. If you have constructive criticism or questions let's talk. If you leave blatantly rude or negative comments, know that no hate is allowed here and will be deleted. And if you read my work and are too shy to interact right now, know that's okay too.


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